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Indian, US officials begin deliberations on proposed bilateral trade agreement in Washington
Apr-24-2025

Indian and US officials have begun deliberations on the proposed bilateral trade agreement in Washington from April 23, 2025 with an aim to iron out issues and give an impetus to the negotiations. The US has stated that the pact with India will help open new markets for American goods and create new opportunities for workers, farmers, and entrepreneurs in both countries.

According to the US Trade Representative, the United States is looking at increasing market access, reducing tariffs and non-tariff barriers, and negotiating a robust set of additional commitments to ensure long-term benefits. The US has on multiple occasions flagged concerns on widening trade deficit with India, which is $45.7 billion in 2024. It would look at bridging this deficit with India through the BTA. The two have finalised the terms of reference (ToR) for the agreement. The three-day talks assume significance as the US has paused the imposition of tariffs for 90 days. The ToRs cover around 19 chapters, such as tariffs, non-tariff barriers, and customs facilitation.

India and the US have been engaged in negotiating a bilateral trade agreement since March. Both sides have targeted to conclude the first phase of the pact by the fall (September-October) of this year, with an aim to more than double the bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030, from about $191 billion currently. In a trade pact, two countries either significantly reduce or eliminate customs duties on the maximum number of goods traded between them. They also ease norms to promote trade in services and boost investments. While the US is looking at duty concessions in sectors like certain industrial goods, automobiles (electric vehicles particularly), wines, petrochemical products, dairy, and agriculture items such as apples, tree nuts, and alfalfa hay; India may look at duty cuts for labour-intensive sectors like apparels, textiles, gems and jewellery, leather, plastics, chemicals, oil seeds, shrimp, and horticulture products.

From 2021-22 to 2024-25, the US was India’s largest trading partner. In the last fiscal, India’s exports to the US rose by 11.6 per cent to $86.51 billion against $77.52 billion in 2023-24. The imports were up by 7.44 per cent in 2024-25 to $45.33 billion against $42.2 billion in 2023-24.
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